Simpson Holding A Jazz Beachhead

July 27, 1987|By Thom Duffy of the Sentinel Staff

It is a Friday night and the radio dial is full of the usual fare -- classic rock, hot hits, light pop. But that's not all.

At the far left end of the FM band, Dizzy Gillespie is blowing his horn. So is John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and others. And between these vintage jazz tracks comes the sound of ocean surf and sea gulls, then a calm voice.

That evocative name and the sound effects conjure up an image of Simpson sitting at his microphone in some darkened beach house, the window open to the ocean outside, spinning these glorious be-bop records too seldom heard on the air nowadays.

In reality, Simpson, a Cocoa Beach resident, broadcasts his program live from the studios of WUCF-FM (89.9) at the University of Central Florida each Friday from 8 to 11 p.m. (He's also heard Sundays from 7 to 10 p.m. on WMIE-FM 91.5 in Cocoa.)

The actual setting of Jazz on the Beach is less important than its content and history. Simpson's program is the best place to hear the remarkable music that bridged the eras of the big bands and rock fusion groups in American jazz.

The 62-year-old deejay has been sharing his devotion to be-bop with Jazz on the Beach listeners for 20 years this month. This past weekend, Simpson marked his 20th anniversary by playing cuts from favorite LPs by Coltrane, Charlie Parker, the Jazz Messengers and others.

It was July of 1967 when Simpson, at the encouragement of his wife Lorraine, began Jazz on the Beach at WRKT-FM in Cocoa Beach, the station known today as WSSP-FM (104.1). The Beach has migrated through the years, first to WCKS-FM, the station now known as WSTF-FM (101.1), and later to WMFE-FM (90.7). Simpson remained at WMFE until it abandoned jazz programming. He's been at WUCF since 1983.

Simpson's show is laced with facts and reminiscences about the musicians he features. He met and interviewed many in the years when jazz greats were regularly booked at the Village Lounge at Walt Disney World.

''That enabled me to establish a lot of contacts and friendships with people who had been my heroes for a long time,'' he said. ''I've got these wonderful memories and I feel I became part of the jazz community.''

Simpson has taken his turn as a jazz concert promoter as well. This Labor Day weekend, he again will promote an annual jazz festival in Cocoa Beach. But there's something about the audience at those concerts that troubles him.

''Two-thirds of the music that I play is by black musicians. But it's frustrating to me that at any jazz festival the preponderance of the audience is white,'' said Simpson, who is white. ''Every major move that jazz has taken, the black musician has been the innovator. Yet black people seem to have ignored jazz. It's become a white entertainment.''

As troubling to Simpson is the fact that so little of the heritage of American jazz is heard on the radio. That's true, even as young artists like Wynton Marsalis and ''lite'' jazz radio formats bring new listeners to this music.

But Simpson keeps in mind what Harry ''Sweets'' Edison, the horn player from Count Basie's band, once told him.

''The only way that we musicians who have been around for a long time can stay in the public eye is through people like you who play our music,'' Edison said. ''How are the kids of today ever going to hear the sounds of the jazz greats if you don't play them? You should be commended for keeping this music and our sounds alive.''